


I Have Seen Red; It Is 6eautiful

by gingerbread man (xphantomhive)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Humanstuck, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4773527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xphantomhive/pseuds/gingerbread%20man
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tie on her anime schoolgirl uniform is red, and your sweater is, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Have Seen Red; It Is 6eautiful

**Author's Note:**

> for user VocaloidSWEETIE! happy (late? early? i'm not good with dates) seventeenth, dear!

You still see the world in black and white.

It’s been nineteen years; seeing everything as a darkwash photo shouldn’t make you as depressed as it does. You’re pretty sure it wouldn’t, but your brother Karkat got his colors a few months back and he’s been talking about how beautiful they are ever since. The first one he saw was green, and from there, he gradually gained more and more. And now, you can’t get him to shut up about how pretty the sky is, or how gorgeous the grass is.

Frankly, it’s sickening. That’s why you’re standing in front of his soulmate Nepeta’s door, knuckles hovering above the wood. You want to knock, but at the same time, you don’t. This is rude of you, isn’t it? It’s rude of you to barge over here and demand your brother’s soulmate tell him to stop talking about color; you’re just upset because you haven’t seen yours yet.

Despite those thoughts, you knock anyway. You’d been expecting to see a short, bubbly girl with a fluffy hat on; instead, you’re met by a tall, lithe girl with brunette hair pinned into a bun and a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. “Who the fuck’re you?” She asks.

“How eloquent a question,” you murmur bitterly. “Kankri. Karkat’s brother. I’m here to see Nepeta.”

The girl stares at you for a minute more, which gives you a golden opportunity to really get a good look at her. She has pale skin, and she’s clad in some sort of schoolgirl uniform pulled straight from an anime. You note that the tips of her hair are lighter, and you wonder briefly if they’re dyed.

Then she calls over her shoulder, “Nep! Some boy in a lame ass sweater is here to see you!”

“That was rude,” you comment. “I will have you know my best friend Porrim made me this.”

“Porrim? Like Porrim Maryam?”

You nod.

“Oh, alright - it’s you, her little friend Kanny.”

You open your mouth to say something else, but the words die on your tongue when Nepeta shoves the girl out of the way and waves rapidly. You’re shocked that she isn’t dressed as she usually is; instead, her short hair is clipped back with a kitten pin, and she’s wearing a dress. “Is there something you needed, Kankri?”

“Yes, actually. Would you mind telling Karkat to stop talking about color so often? It is not only getting on my nerves, but it is also upsetting me.”

Nepeta frowns thoughtfully. “Sure, Kankri! Anything for a friend.”

“Now that that’s out of the way,” you clear your throat. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Damara,” she says with a grin. “Damara, this is Kankri.”

“So I’ve heard,” she replies sarcastically. “You’ve got a date to be on, Nep. I’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone, promise I won’t have any parties.”

Nepeta sticks her tongue out at Damara, but jogs down the pathway and starts walking in the direction of your house. Since Damara said she has a date to be on, you can only assume that’s where she’s going to. “You can come in, if you want.” Damara says, opening the door further.

You swallow roughly and nod, stepping into the house. So what if Damara is sort of attractive? So what if you’re fixing your white hair in Nepeta’s mirror, making sure your red eyes aren’t too red, even though you can’t exactly control your eye color. Nepeta’s house is just as you’d imagined; neat and tidy, aside from the cat hair all over the sofa and the ground.

“I just cleaned up after these cats this afternoon.” Damara grumbles. You can’t help but let out a little laugh, but you snap your mouth shut when she shoots you a cold glare. “Couch is over there. Want anything to drink?”

“Does Nepeta have tea, by chance?”

Damara snorts. “Nepeta without tea is like rice crispies without snap, crackle, and pop,” she replies. “Sit down, I’ll be back with your tea. You like it with sugar and honey, or black?”

“Sugar and honey, if you could.”

“Gotcha.”

Damara turns and heads into the kitchen, and you have a seat on the chair that’s covered in the least cat hair. Your phone rings while you’re waiting for Damara to bring your tea, and you’re half tempted to answer, but you decide that whoever it is can wait. A second later, Damara is sauntering into the room, teacup in hand. She sets it on the table closest to you, plops down on the couch, and flicks the television on.

“So, Kankri,” she says. “You got your color yet?”

You groan and let your head fall back.

“I’ll take that as a no. If it makes ya’ feel better, I haven’t gotten mine yet, either.”

You perk up at that. “Really?”

She nods, idly sipping from whatever drink it is she has. It’s in a can, but she has it turned toward her and you can’t read the logo. But, judging by the color of the can, you assume it’s beer. “Yeah, but I think color sucks anyway. Black and white always looked cooler to me. I’m kinda hoping I don’t have a soulmate, you know? Just to live and black and white.”

You don’t agree with her, but you nod anyway. Black and white has become depressing for you, and all you ever think about is when you’ll get your color and that anyone could be your soulmate and you don’t know it. You also catch yourself wondering what the first color you see is going to be; will it be green, like Karkat, or will it be another color?

“You don’t agree with me at all, do ya’?” Damara asks, setting the can down (you were right, it was beer) and lighting her cigarette. You have the urge to lecture her about how rude it is to smoke when indoors, especially because the house isn’t hers, but you don’t. “You’re just waiting around to find that special someone. What a crock of shit.” She laughs and opens her mouth to let the smoke escape, and you notice that she has a tongue piercing.

“I find it to be intriguing. A simple touch from a person will give me all the color I am missing - don’t you think that sounds interesting, Damara?”

She chuckles. “Honestly, Kanrki, I don’t. You know Porrim has her color, but she didn’t tell anyone? All because the person she got color from got color from another person. And Nepeta knows these two boys, think their names are Dave and John? And the one got color, Dave I think it was, and the other didn’t. Ever thought about that? About how maybe your soulmate is someone else’s soulmate?”

“Way to ruin the wonder for me,” you mumble spitefully. Damara shakes her head.

“You shouldn’t have had any wonder in the first place. It’s bullshit.”

“You sure do like the word bullshit.” You point out.

“Sure do,” she fires back quickly.

She takes another drag from her cigarette and shifts. Now she’s facing more toward you, and the shirt she’s wearing is a little too revealing; you can see more than you signed up for. She doesn’t really seem to mind, though. “Gonna drink that tea I lovingly prepared for you?”

You nod rapidly, reaching for the teacup. It’s already gone cold, but you’re a guest and Damara made you the tea, so you start sipping it anyway. Damara makes conversation while you drink, and you respond to the things she says between each break. Once you’re finished, she rises from the couch and offers to take the dirtied dishes to the kitchen. You hold the cup out to her and she grabs it, her fingers brushing against the back of your hand.

And then you see it.

The tie she’s got on; it’s a rich color. Dark, but not black. A lighter shade of black, one you’ve never seen before. Your sweater is the same color, only brighter. You don’t know if Damara saw it, because she’s already in the kitchen by the time you look up. The color floods in from there; the TV is no longer black and white, but full of color. But that first color you saw,

what was that?

“It was red,” Damara says, startling you. “The first color you saw was red. I saw it too. Porrim explained to me what it looked like when she got her colors.”

“You saw it too?” You ask, baffled.

“Yep,” she responds. “Just got my color.”

“That means-”

“I know that that means, Kankri.”

The two of you don’t talk about it for the rest of the night. Not about how the walls are a hideous shade of green, or how Nepeta’s cat is orange, or how Damara’s skirt is blood red or how your sweater is bright, startling red. Instead, you watch some documentary about something no one cares about in silence.

When Nepeta comes home, around twelve a.m, Damara says nothing to her about color and neither do you. Nepeta offers to walk you home, because she’s always on board with seeing Karkat again, but Damara cuts in with, “I’ll walk him.”

You don’t talk about color on the way home, either. About how the sky is pitch black, and the stars are shiny white and the moon is gray, how the grass is green and the houses you pass are all different colors. You don’t talk at all. You walk in solitude, the only sound the popping of Damara’s lips as she inhales smoke into her lungs.

But at your door, she grabs you by the front of your shirt and melds your lips together. She tastes like smoke and vanilla, and you melt against her. She doesn’t smile when she pulls back, nor does she speak a word about color. She goes, “you’re pretty hot,” and then she’s gone.

You watch her leave and stand on your porch confusedly until Karkat sees you through the curtains, opens the front door, and screams, “Will you get the fuck inside already?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> damkri isn't really one of my pairings, but i don't mind it.
> 
> sorry if i didn't write kankri or damara that well; i tried.
> 
> i do hope you enjoyed this.


End file.
